Steering actors through a virtual set employing vibro-tactile feedback

ABSTRACT

Actors in virtual studio productions are faced with the challenge that they have to interact with invisible virtual objects because these elements are rendered separately and combined with the real image later in the production process. Virtual sets typically use static virtual elements or animated objects with predefined behavior so that actors can practice their performance and errors can be corrected in the post production. With the demand for inexpensive live recording and interactive TV productions, virtual objects will be dynamically rendered at arbitrary positions that cannot be predicted by the actor. Perceptive aids have to be employed to support a natural interaction with these objects.

In our work we study the effect of haptic feedback for a simple form of interaction. Actors are equipped with a custom built haptic belt and get vibro-tactile feedback during a small navigational task (path following). We present a prototype of a wireless vibro-tactile feedback device and a small framework for evaluating haptic feedback in a virtual set environment. Results from an initial pilot study indicate that vibro-tactile feedback is a suitable non-visual aid for interaction that is at least comparable to audio-visual alternatives used in virtual set productions.

REFERENCES

• 1: Bimber, O., Grundhöfer, A., Zollmann, S., and Kolster, D. Digital Illumination for Augmented Studios. Journal of Virtual Reality and Broadcasting 3, 8 (December 2006).
• 2: Cardin, S., Vexo, F., and Thalmann, D. Vibro-Tactile Interface for Enhancing Piloting Abilities During Long Term Flight. Journal of Robotics and Mechatronics Vol. 18, No. 4 (2006), pp. 381--391.
• 3: Feintuch, U., Raz, L., Hwang, J., Josman, N., Katz, N., Kizony, R., Rand, D., Rizzo, A. S., Shahar, M., Yongseok, J., and Weiss, P. L. T. Integrating haptic-tactile feedback into a video-capture-based virtual environment for rehabilitation. CyberPsychology & Behavior 9, 2 (April 2006), pp. 129--132.
• 4: Xiaoyan Fu , Dahai Li, Haptic shoes: representing information by vibration, proceedings of the 2005 Asia-Pacific symposium on Information visualisation, p.47-50, January 01, 2005, Sydney, Australia
• 5: Simon Gibbs , Costas Arapis , Christian Breiteneder , Vali Lalioti , Sina Mostafawy , Josef Speier, Virtual Studios: An Overview, IEEE MultiMedia, v.5 n.1, p.18-35, January 1998 [doi>10.1109/93.664740]
• 6: Grau, O., Koch, R., Lavagetto, F., Milne, M., Murphy, E., Price, M., Razzoli, O., Sarti, A., Spallarossa, L., Tubaro, S., and Woetzel, J. New production tools for the planning and the on-set visualisation of virtual and real scenes. In Conference Proc. of International Broadcasting Convention (Amsterdam, NL, September 2003).
• 7: Immersion Corporation. Cybertouch datasheet. http://www.immersion.com/3d/docs/cybertouch\%5Fjul07v2-1r.pdf, 2007. last check: 2008-12-15.
• 8: Kim, N., Woo, W., Kim, G. J., and Park, C.-M. 3d virtual studio for natural inter-acting. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics - Part A: Systems and Humans 36, 4 (July 2006), pp. 758--773.
• 9: Laycock, S. D., and Day, A. M. Recent developments and applications of haptic devices. Computer Graphics Forum 22, 2 (June 2003), pp. 117--132.
• 10: Naturalpoint. Optitrack. http://www.naturalpoint.com/optitrack/, 2008. last check: 2008-12-15.
• 11: Piateski, E. M. A tactile communication system for navigation. Master's thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2005.
• 12: Martin Pielot , Niels Henze , Wilko Heuten , Susanne Boll, Evaluation of Continuous Direction Encoding with Tactile Belts, Proceedings of the 3rd international workshop on Haptic and Audio Interaction Design, September 15-16, 2008, Jyväskylä, Finland [doi>10.1007/978-3-540-87883-4_1]
• 13: Price, M., and Thomas, G. 3d virtual production and delivery using mpeg-4. In International Broadcasting Convention, IBC 2000 (2000).
• 14: Russell M. Taylor, II , Thomas C. Hudson , Adam Seeger , Hans Weber , Jeffrey Juliano , Aron T. Helser, VRPN: a device-independent, network-transparent VR peripheral system, Proceedings of the ACM symposium on Virtual reality software and technology, November 15-17, 2001, Baniff, Alberta, Canada [doi>10.1145/505008.505019]
• 15: SensAble Technologies. Haptic devices. http://www.sensable.com/products-haptic-devices.htm. last check: 2008-12-15.
• 16: van Erp, J. B. F., and Self, B. P. Tactile Displays for Orientation, Navigation and Communication in Air, Sea and Land Environments. Tech. rep., NATO Research and Technology Organisation, August 2008.
• 17: Jan B. F. Van Erp , Hendrik A. H. C. Van Veen , Chris Jansen , Trevor Dobbins, Waypoint navigation with a vibrotactile waist belt, ACM Transactions on Applied Perception (TAP), v.2 n.2, p.106-117, April 2005 [doi>10.1145/1060581.1060585]
• 18: Shih-Ching Yeh , Albert Rizzo , Weirong Zhu , Jill Stewart , Margaret McLaughlin , Isaac Cohen , Younbo Jung , Wei Peng, An integrated system: virtual reality, haptics and modern sensing technique (VHS) for post-stroke rehabilitation, Proceedings of the ACM symposium on Virtual reality software and technology, November 07-09, 2005, Monterey, CA, USA [doi>10.1145/1101616.1101628]

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.1 Multimedia Information Systems

Keywords:
interaction in virtual sets, navigation aids, tactile feedback